By Okey Alozie
Occupants of buildings and shops in strategic places in Owerri have started lambasting Imo State Government Taskforce on disilting of gutters and water ways within the capital city.
Our reporter who moved round Owerri city observed that good number of shop owners and land lords are now raising eyesbrows over the heaps and rubbish of dirts kept infront of their premises.
Some of the aggrieved shop owners who spoke to our roving reporter at different locations accused the Government Taskforce of frustrating their businesses and making the atmosphere unconducive for them.
They complained that the Government Taskforce evacuated all the rubbish inside street gutters and dumped them infront of people’s houses and business premises for more than one week now without removing them. “This is unhygienic” one of the landlords submitted.
A female shop owner who was shading tears while explaining things to our reporter said that the Taskforce workers who were cleaning street gutters evacuated rubbish and dumped the dirty and smelling materials on the step leading inside her shop and since there is no money to pack those rubbish over one week, customers have deserted her shop because of the provocative odour oozing out from heaps of rubbish.
It would be recalled that the State Government recently identified the cause of flooding around Owerri metropolis to be the inability of tenants and occupants to clean their gutters and water ways including building of structures on top of gutters.
The Government Taskforce swung in to full action to rescue the situation by opening water channels which was hailed by many people. The workers were hired to clean and evacuate rubbish kept inside gutters by good number of landlords and shop owners who now dump their dirty things inside the gutters.
The taskforce as we learnt has started clearing all the waste brought out from the gutters and water way. But the exercise is very slow causing more problem as the dirts are going back into the gutters, while in some cases roads are blocked by refuse.
There are streets that were abandoned places like Items street Ikenegbu, World Bank Estate and Site and Services.
